A swift scroll down Twitter on tweets around the Indian Premier League will give the user an idea about what ‘Yellove’ and ‘Whistle Podu’ mean. As the squad of the three-time title champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is busy prepping for its opening match against nemesis Mumbai Indians on Saturday, its social media team is busy back home.
CSK’s social media admins, who go by the joint name of Leo and do not wish to reveal their real identities, are swamped with several tweets, fan-posters, messages of love and support from fans across the globe. For the purpose of this interview, we're referring to Leo in the singular.
Handled by OPN Advertising Private Limited, a Chennai-based advertising agency since the first edition of IPL in 2008, CSK is the most-followed Twitter account among the IPL teams with 5.8 million followers. It has over 5 million followers on Instagram and over 12 million on Facebook.
How did the social media journey begin for Leo? “In 2008, when IPL started, we were all figuring things out since we didn’t know how to kickstart a campaign on social media. In 2010, the team management realised the importance of social media and channelising energies towards that,” Leo says. It was in 2009, when IPL was held in South Africa, that the management of CSK understood the influence that social media has in the lives of people. That led to the ‘Whistle Podu’ campaign, which has now become an identifier for the team, Dhoni, and by extension Chennai and Tamil Nadu.
“The Whistlepodu anthem notched things up quite a bit and within a very short span of time, we had at least a hundred different versions of the fan videos. That actually changed us and made us realise that we should focus on social media and slowly we started putting our energies into it,” Leo adds.
CSK’s Twitter handle is known for its quirky content related to cricket, aptly peppering it with references from Tamil Nadu’s pop culture. Comedian Vadivelu, Kollywood movie GIFs, references to Superstar Rajinikanth and several other markers that are unique to Tamil Nadu are frequently spotted on CSK’s social media.
“We don’t do reports like practice videos and things like that. We want to be a voice that helps the fans connect with us using the south Indian lingo, the movie references that we make etc. It is all about staying in the present. The focus is on what add-on we can provide to plain content we have, like images and videos, to make it interesting. Anybody can do social media content just with plain images and videos,” Leo points out. He adds that though there is no rigid plan to use at least one tweet with a Tamil reference a day, it just happens that way more often than not. Leo also explains that with a massive fanbase across the globe, it is necessary to not become too Tamil-oriented on social media since the content has to resonate with all the fans.
pic.twitter.com/QyDrFUxCx7
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) September 5, 2020
In the line of titles like Thala and Chinna Thala is Parasakthi Express, which is the name kept by the social media team for Imran Tahir. “It was late night when we once got this video (in which Tahir keeps running for a long time after a wicket) from one of our team-mates with the caption ‘Odinen odinen Chennai-yin ellai varai odinen’ (I ran till the end of Chennai - The line is a reference to Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan’s debut movie Parasakthi, which was later spoofed by comedian Vivek in the 2000s) and asked why can’t we name him ‘Parasakthi Express’. The name thus stuck,” Leo explains.
Fan engagement
Engagement with fans has been one of the biggest assets of CSK. CSK also enjoys one among the most loyal fanbases across the league for years now. For Leo, involving fans in the social media strategy has been key. Leo, in fact, says that he goes through every tweet and comment addressed to CSK and is also inspired by a lot of fan-made content shared with him.
“Most of the time, the fans are way ahead of us. They will spot some player somewhere and share their joy with us in the form of images. We used it to our advantage. We retweeted it and tagged the fan,” Leo recollects, adding that it was not important for them to be CSK’s sole authority when it comes to social media. “For us, it was good too because we were not getting enough content. So if fans are pitching in, we might as well celebrate that. They are thrilled when they get an approval sign from us and so are we,” he adds.
Referring to one of CSK’s most recent social media campaigns ‘Followback Friday’, Leo says that it was also a way to recognise the team’s fans and their efforts, support and encouragement.
“In fact every auction day, our TL was filled with Vadivelu memes. There could be a scene where we won’t be bidding for a long time. So before someone else comes to troll us, we have to self-troll to keep our sanity intact. It is a choice of either being ahead of the fans or being in tandem with them. Sometimes, we just accept that yeah, fans are better at putting out great content,” he says, crediting the team’s management for giving them a free-hand when it comes to social media.
‘We are fans first’
In 2019, a small video of MS Dhoni receiving a rousing reception at Chepauk during a practice session went viral on social media.
“We knew that the crowd was there for the practice. We realised that MS had not walked out (to the ground) yet and the remaining team were there doing their job. I guess MS staying inside kind of excited the fans a lot too because they were expecting him to come out and play. I think I just followed the crazy CSK fan emotions inside me and shot it when MS finally came out to the field to play. I was so nervous and was trying really hard to not shake the camera with which I was filming it,” Leo gushes.
A main part of CSK’s social media strategy has been to consider themselves as the craziest fans of the team. A rudimentary glance at the team’s tweets will make one wonder if it is a fan account or the official account of the franchise. It is perhaps this non-authoritarian voice that has helped CSK become dear to fans.
“With a team like CSK, you cannot plan for social media content. We consider it this way — ‘We are there as a fan. A fan will capture what is in front of him and relish it later. That’s what is happening.’ We are almost like a fly on the wall. We don’t intrude into the players’ space. They are there for something, so we let them do their thing. We do ours. Being candid on social media content has worked for us,” Leo explains.
CSK’s continuing relationship with its veterans like Matthew Hayden and L Balaji who stopped playing after the first few seasons is also a trait that is adored by fans online. When asked if there are any strict no-nos when it comes to CSK’s social media policy, Leo is quick to say that being non-offensive is crucial.
“We don’t offend anyone. We engage in casual banter but never put down anyone badly. We don’t troll others, but only ourselves. Even when fans troll other teams, we don’t engage with that. We try not to hurt anyone. We celebrate cricket and the true spirit of the sport is ingrained in us,” he says.
What’s in the pipeline?
When asked whether it is time to replace the vintage Whistle Podu anthem with a newer one, Leo says that there are no plans for that. “Even Dhoni will be against it. In CSK we don’t change the team, the jersey or anything. So the anthem will remain. But there is a surprise coming up with the fans hopefully ahead of the first match,” he quips.
The recent events, including the departure of two senior players Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh, caught the fans off-guard. Acknowledging that it was indeed shocking news for them, Leo says that the game goes on. “We still have a season to go and matches to focus on. The team not taking any replacement for these two seniors is still surprising. But I think the team is well-equipped to deal with it too. In 2018, we remember a lot of replacement-based social media posts. But this year, I think the team is confident of a great outing,” he concludes.
